Craptina

First person to name this object wins one!

Pink Tea Raglan Complete

Hello to the latest FO!
The Green Tea Raglan from the Spring 07 IK. (unofficially, this is the Pink Tea Raglan)
Yarn: Artfibers Phyz in number 07
Needles: size 6 and 7 circs
Mods: I made the body slightly longer and lowered the neckline, but other than that I pretty much stayed with the pattern. This was really quick to knit and Phyz was fun to knit with. It's got a nice sparkle to it, especially in the sun.

So many of you know that sewing is not my passion, but I do like to do simple projects, and basic mending. Two weeks ago Kaitlyn and I wiped out Brooklyn General with the last of this awesome fabric...

 
I'm not sure what my plans are do to with it yet, but I'll probably make another drawstring project bag, since I not longer have the one Kaitlyn made at Christmas from the Spider exchange. It was stolen about two months ago, and I bet some hipster who doesn't even knit swiped it just to put some chinsy patches on too tight jeans. Dammit! I'm still pissed.

Anyway, my sister is moving from Brooklyn to New Jersey and I'm becoming the recipient of many unwanted household items. She brought over some things over the weekend, but the most exciting was this:

My great grandmother crocheted this table runner. It feels like cotton, and I can't guess what size hook she must've used because the stitches are teeny tiny! My sister has been hanging onto it for years, and I didn't even realize she had it. This lay in our dining room as we grew up and I'm so excited to have it in my home now. As you can see it's a little beat up and dirty, and I think some mending and a frame will best suit this piece. It'll should be treated like a proper heirloom now.

Here's a closeup on the tiny stitches.....

Any suggestions on how to clean something like this would be grately appreciated. See you all next week, I'm off to North Carolina to visit my folks for a long weekend.

We Now Continue for Our Regularly Scheduled Blogging

Yowzaa!! It's been a long time since my last post. The delay from the blog was caused by some serious running around these past few weeks. I swear there was not one slow day where I had time to sit and write. However, that has not stopped the knitting, which there is LOTS to show.  Let's start with the FOs......

The Sienna Cardigan completed!
Pattern: Sienna Cardigan, from the Fall 2006 Interweave Knits
Yarn: Wool Ease worsted weight
Needles: Size 8 Addie Turbo
Time: About two months
Mods: As previously blogged, I worked the back and front panels at the same time, basically to avoid seaming. However, I ended up purchasing this book and if you don't have it GO GET IT. I've never been very good at seaming, but this book was fabulous. I am so proud of my shoulder seams :) Prink helped me pick out the buttons at M&J.
Notes: For all the G.D. stockinette, I'm really happy with this sweater and can't wear it enough. 

 

Oh yeah, some Jaywalkers!
Yarn: Lanna Grassa
Needles: Size 1 DPNs
Time: About 1.2 months
Notes: I made these for Big A, hence the hairy legs.

So one of the reasons for the delay from blogland was our anniversary. Big A and I made it a full year. We had a big party at the end of February sice it was also our roomate's birthday. I made big A the jaywalkers as a gift. For my present he gave me this drawing:

He took my things, my favorite things and drew this still life from pencil and charcoal. After a year of dating and even living together, he hasn't let me see his portfolio from art school, but I knew he was good. Here's a close up of the drawing, for all of the stunning details.

There's more to show and tell, but I don't want to overwhelm you all so sit tight, more coming soon!

Tubey

Voilia!

It's the  Tubey! It was officially finished on Saturday morning, but I hadn't been available to tie in loose ends, wear it, and post about it until today. This is my second sweater, my first being one I made at 16 for some old boyfriend (wonder why he flew off) so I'm happy to finally have something for myself. This is my first completed project since christmas knitting. I had not seen Carrie's post about her Tubey fiasco until after mine was finished. I had luckily tried on the sweater three times before finishing, and was aware there was a problem with the back being MUCH longer than the front and the overall pattern being kinda big. I ended up so some decreasing on the sides for a little shaping, and also adding short rows just before the bottom stripes. I added a regular round here and there so it wouldn't get too "pouchy"

I used Cascade 220, and man that is some nice yarn. It took about three skeins of navy, and there are pleanty more left over of the other colors. I wore the sweater to work today and it was really warm and cozy.

The back came much nicer than I expected, it was a biiiiiitch to pick up those stitches.

And the side seam came really nice. I did have to sew the chest up to the shrug because there was quite a gap.  And amen for small boobs, because this thing looks a little odd with a t-shirt or a bra underneath it. I'm going to have to play around in my closet to find a good match.

I'm really happy I made a sweater and I like it. In my knitting history it has been rare that I make myself a piece of clothing that fits just right or I actually like at the end of it. Yay!!

Windowpane Seaman's Scarf

Happy new year all! Chrismas was fine and dandy. I got so many fun knitting presents, and got a lot done too. I have to say that knitting is quite theraputic when your in a house with eight other family members for a week. Yowsa! It was a good time, but in the end I was really happy to be back to the city. My mother loved the lace runner (she brought it out everytime we had company, it was quite embarassing) and my Dad loved the Windowpane scarf. 

This was really fun to work on and didn't take too long, about two weeks total. I like working with cables because it changes things up a bit, and this pattern certianly had variety. It's a series of 18 rows, and not very complicated at all. It's good practice for the beginning cabler.

Did I even mention that I had been knitting this scarf? I don't think I ever brought it to The Point, it was an entirely subway knit, cast on and bound off all on the D.  The pattern is a freebie from Knitpicks this month. It's called the Windowpane Seaman's scarf.  I didn't put in the neck ribbing that the pattern called for, I thought it looked weird. It was really soft and blocked nicely. I eneded up using two skeins of Misti Alpaca  yarn.   

This is me and my Dad

And this is a bunch of meatballs. This was just to have on stash for the week. We only get ma's meatballs once a year so they were needed at all times. My mother actually made more and froze them so we would be sure to have a few to take home each!@ I didn't get a picture of those.....

Lacey Placemats

These placemats are from the book Simple Knits for Sophisticated Living by Barbara Albright. These were really quick to whip up and made a great christmas gift. I used KnitPicks cotton "shine and twist" yarn in apricot. This is a sport cotton weight so it was a little flimsy, but a little starch and iron firmed it right up.

Here's a close up of the lace pattern:

Flower Basket Shawl Number 2!

I knitted like a maniac this week and finished ANOTHER flower basket shawl. This yarn has seen better days. It started off as a ribbed bolero and three-quarters of the way through, I realised there was not enough yarn. However there was pleanty enough to salvage a shawl out of, just in time for christmas. Did I mention this is one of my treasured Brooks Farm skeins?  This is the duet- a silk/mohair blend (50/50). It is so SOFT! The only dissapointment is that I couldn't get the pointy edging with this yarn. The instructions say to cast off very very loosely, which  I made sure to, but this  wool just didn't have the  give that laceweight does. However, the shape is shawl-like, so I'm ok with it.

Note: This shawl is extra big because I had enough to do ten repeats of the pattern instead of seven. Thank you lord for extra long needles.

In other news, today I made "West Side Monopoly" with my 5 kiddies. We're having a christmas party on Tuesday and this is going to be a group gift for everyone. The parents don't know what we were doing, I just took the kids for a morning. They were happy to not ask questions and get some free time!  I imagine it will pass between their three houses, and I know it will get a lot of use. We are regular monopoly players. We took a regular monopoly board and painted over it. We put a piece of cardboard in the middle and drew on that too. Then we put all of the schoool's, subway stops, family restaurants, grocery store, favorite parks and playgrounds.....and we made our own chance/community chest cards!

If you're wondering, yes, they call me "Ginny". So does my Mom.

My favorite part of it was that instead of Go to Jail" we put "Go to the Chair!" It was totally their idea. I added to the corner of that square.

That's a child in the chair crying, if you can't tell from the glare.

Well these past few days have been hectic but quite satisfying. Christmas projects are finishing up, now it's just down to wrapping and drinking eggnog! I'm off to a christmas party....

Flower Basket Shawl

She just screams, "I'm so pretty!!"

This is the Flower Basket shawl from the Fall 04 IK, designed by Evelyn A. Clark. Better picture to come, I left it at my desk for two nights now, so no new pics available without the shawl.  Special thanks to Veronique again for all her help.  If you need help getting started Get It Knitted has a great tutorial for the weird cast on. Thanks to vacation time over Thanksgiving for being able to finish in 9 days! I've started another one, trying to whip up as many christmas presents as possible...should I put a wrist brace on my christmas list?